Boy Suffers 'Severe' Injury on Playground Slide: What Parents Need to Know

Prevent kids’ summer fun from turning into a hot mess with a few smart tips. (Photo: Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.) 

As the saying goes, it’s all fun and games until somebody gets hurt. Veronica Cedillo’s son learned that the hard way last Thursday. The El Paso, Texas, elementary schooler was playing at an unshaded public park during a day of reportedly 100-degree heat when he zipped down the slide and the plastic equipment burned his back.

STORY: What Every Kid Should Know About Safety By Age 6

“I didn’t know the severity of the burn,” the mom told KFOX14 on Tuesday. “I took him to his pediatrician yesterday. She said it was a real severe burn. I should have taken him to the emergency room.”

STORY: Head Injuries In Kids: When To Rush To The ER

Cedillo’s son was burned badly on his back. (Photo: Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.)

Cedillo is now speaking out to urge the local Parks and Recreation Department to build canopies to shade the playground so the equipment surfaces don’t get dangerously hot.

But slides aren’t the only parts of playgrounds that can turn troublesome for kids in the summer. Deborah Gilboa, MD, a family physician and parenting expert, tells Yahoo Parenting that while the more kids play outside, the better, parents do need to encourage kids to assess the situation before they jump in, so to speak.

(Photo: Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.)

“One of the greatest things to do in summer is to help kids learn how to be aware of their surroundings,” she says. “Parents need to stop and look around a minute to evaluate the area their kids are playing in, and then talk with kids about what’s safe.” For example, trees are great for climbing, the doctor says, “but if they have poison ivy wrapped around the trunk, that’s not so good.”

Slides: “Metal is more painful in hot sun, but every kid knows that,” she says. “Teach kids to test plastic slides, too, before they use them. Have them touch their bare toes on it before they slide with their whole back touching it.” (Ditto for the surfaces of unshaded swings, which can burn the backs of kids’ thighs). Mom and Dad need to be careful, too: Kids risk leg fractures if parents are plunging down the slide with them and don’t position them correctly. “Have a child sit on your lap with their legs on top of your legs,” advises Gilboa, noting that otherwise, a child’s leg can get caught between your leg and the slide as you pull forward. “We see a lot of little kids get hurt this way.”

Sprinklers: Kids’ favorite hot-weather activity is great for letting them blow off steam as they sprint around in circles. Just make sure that the spray is pointing away from a street or a bike path, Gilboa cautions, or else young ones may run into the path of unaware cyclists or cars.

Jungle gyms: “Look out for nests hidden in corners of the equipment,” says Gilboa. “Bees and wasps like to build nests in tiny corners, so look under things before kids go crawling on top of and below them.”

Scooter and bike paths: “Any time there are wheels under kids’ feet, there should be a helmet on their head,” she says, explaining that if kids fall and smash their heads on the asphalt unprotected, they risk concussions or brain injuries. So, as hot as it may be, helmet up. “One day of fun isn’t worth a lifelong injury,” she says.

Sandbox: Kids eating sand actually “isn’t something to stress about,” Gilboa says. If you have a sand snacker, just make sure to bring a spray bottle loaded with water. “Kids like drinking out of it,” she says. “And it’s perfect for spraying on kids’ tongues to wash away any sand they’ve sampled.”

But the two most important things to remember when kids are al fresco in the summer — especially during the sun’s peak hours of strength, from noon to 2 p.m. — are sunscreen and water.

“Playing outside is so fun, it’s easy to lose track of time and not get enough of either,” she says, advising parents to reapply sunscreen on young kids every two hours and to give older kids a sunscreen stick to do it themselves.

“Tell kids that every time they switch activities or move to another area of the playground, they have to drink some water,” she says. “If they don’t take water breaks, they’ll get headaches and nauseated and won’t want to drink [anymore] because their stomach is upset. That can lead to getting really sick and ending up in the ER getting IV fluids.”

By empowering kids to hydrate on their own, with a water bottle they’ve brought along in case the playground fountain isn’t working, Gilboa says you help them build a smart, lifelong habit. “It takes a lot of repetitive reminders at first,” she admits. “But if you do it one summer, then the next one they’ll do it on their own.”

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